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Show I SPORTLIGHT Texas, Missouri Keep Gridders By GRANTLAND RICE NEW YORK "If you want to size up a football team," writes L.P.S., "take a look at where most of the players come from. There's the answer. Teams that have many players from out of their own state were benefited by the heaviest proselyting, recruiting and subsi- S"1 dizing, as a rule. Did you notice that in a recent well-selected well-selected all-Southern team, nine of the eleven men came from the north? I just made a check and found t lie majority of the Southern stars pamfl from well "Why," writes in one sideliner, "don't we have three divisions: Professionals, Semi-Professionals, and Amateurs? Each team to play among its own group?" The trouble is the professional casts would insist in-sist on being labeled amateur. The chief trouble will come from athletic scholarships and scholarship ratings. A big number of colleges will stand up and howl at the idea of abandoning all athletic scholarships scholar-ships or forcing football players into courses too tough to be passed. For a great many football foot-ball players can only pass simple sim-ple courses. This doesn't apply to everyone, of course, especially especial-ly to colleges with much higher standards. If the athletic scholarship and scholarship standards can be handled han-dled effectively one won't have to bother with spring practice, bowls or even proselyting, i A fellow isn't going to a college largely to play football and then pay his own way and take up a tough student course. You can bet a carload of bullion on that and! collect every time. But If there are groups of colleges col-leges who want to continue athletic ath-letic scholarships and soft courses they should certainly be allowed to play among themselves. No one is going to get all colleges to take the same route, to follow the same road. The point is that these groups should be sharply divided, each one carrying a different labeL each playing in its own sub-division for its own set of ratings or championships. cham-pionships. It is completely unfair to compare college teams that don't have athletic scholarships and have high student standards with colleges that do have such scholarships plus moronic student ratings. Another Entry I doubt that anyone in the fight game was as well conditioned as one James Joseph Tunney, or knew more about conditioning. Tunney spent just seven years in getting ready for his first Dempsey test. In those seven years he never broke strict training for as long as a split second. He handled his own program, and this also included in-cluded mental training, working for better concentration. He set up program and followed it faithfully. ' Tunny's road work covered an SJ enormous span of ground. Even playing golf he wo'uld hit a drive, toss his club to the caddie and then start running and punching. Grantland Rice above the old Mason and Dixon or Smith and Wesson line. Pennsylvania is the main recruiting ground. "On the other hand," he continues, "Texas teams are nearly all packed with Texans. Missouri has nearly all Missouri boys in her line-up. Pennsylvania, Pennsyl-vania, I'd say, gets the heaviest raiding. They travel from 1,200 to 1,500 miles to grab the best talent Pennsylvania has to offer. of-fer. I'd say Pennsylvania could field a team that would outmatch out-match any in the country, including in-cluding Ohio " and Texas. But one state can't take care of fifteen or twenty colleges. Or maybe many more." If any heavy cut is made In football's present system the loudest squawk will come from Texas. Texas has from 800 to 900 prep schools that go in seriously for football. foot-ball. These myriad schools supply Texas, SMTJ, TCU, Rice, Baylor, Texas A. and M. and one or two others. The Texas athletic scholarship scholar-ship list is also heavy and if there is any big reduction here Texas may secede again if not from the United States, at least from the N.C.A.A. Texas could lure in Arkansas and Oklahoma, and have all the fun and action wanted. Football in Texas is a civil war and the teams really go all out. The high schools in Texas battle it to the hilt from September to, December. Decem-ber. I don't know whether Texas has the phony courses for football players that so many other colleges col-leges have or not. I doubt it, since most of the complaints that have come this way haven't blown in from Texas. - Split-Up May Follow There is a good chance that the end of this football argument may lead to a big split-up to different ways of running the game. |